Strange Placentas.....

After I'd had Alice the midwife came back into the room to tell me about my strange placenta! She said it was really calcified i.e. had lots of calcium deposits which either meant that I was a smoker or the placenta was really at the end of it's useful life. Obviously I don't smoke so this baby must have been really ready to come. She also said there was a whopper of a blood vessel on the top of the placenta which could have ruptured had my waters broken - not good, would have been a real emergency situation! Also the cord came out of the side not the centre which was unusual and also meant it could have ruptured more easily also apparently. After her telling me all this I was alone for a while whilst Ben went home to change, see the girls and sleep before he came back in the afternoon to pick me and Alice up. It gave me a bit of time to think about how blessed I was that my waters didn't break till she came out basically and all those weeks before hand we had been praying for Alice to come at the best possible time and that all would be healthy and well and to hear that actually something seriously horrible could have happened and didn't was a real testimony to me of prayers answered.

On Monday the Health Visitor came for Alice's 6 week check - she weighed 10lbs 8oz and was 58cm long - no wonder she has grown out of many of her 0-3 baby-gro's! I happened to mention to her the placenta story and she asked if there was a history of twins in the family. There is on my mum's side and Ben's brother's are twins. She said sometimes when the cord is not from the centre it's because there had been the possibility it that maybe at the very beginning of the pregnancy there were twins. Interesting.